Korea, North

In this special episode of Korean Kontext, KEI's Juni Kim sat down with three North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea. Each of them has a different story…

The upcoming presidential election in Korea on May 9th will place many key issues under the microscope. One meriting serious consideration that has featured less prominently in the political discourse…

After the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex last year, economic ties between North and South Korea have all but ceased. And as sanctions measures continue to tighten, the international…

Ever since last summer, when South Korea and the United States announced they would be deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to the peninsula, China…

By Sang Kim and Jenna Gibson With a cold snap freezing South Korea this week, we collected a list of 10 useful winter-related Korean words that could help you get through the season. Check out the list and please leave any useful words that we didn’t include in the comments below!        …

By Hwan Kang and Jeff Zwick Twenty years ago, South Korea was enjoying its height as a roaring “Asian tiger” with record economic growth, led by manufactured exports, transforming a war-torn, poor country into a member of the rich nation’s club – the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). However, such confidence masked many…

By Troy Stangarone After conducting a series of missile tests in the summer and late fall, including its first two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests, North Korea went 75 days without a missile test. In some corners there had been hope that North Korea’s pause indicated an openness for talks, but that prospect was always…

By Hwan Kang Although interpretations vary, the general consensus over President Donald Trump’s nomination of Jerome Powell as the new Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) Chair is that Powell is a safe bet. He is considered to be more or less aligned with former Chair Janet Yellen who consistently followed through on gradual monetary tightening, but…

Please join KEI for a discussion on North Korea’s potential incorporation of AI into its cyber arsenal.